THE SETTLEMENT OF RUSSIAN PEASANTS IN KAZAKHSTAN BY THE TSARIST GOVERNMENT IN THE LATE XIX-EARLY XX CENTURY

The loss of full political power of the Kazakh Khanate in the second half of the XIX century led to the implementation of measures of the policy of settlement of the Russian Kingdom in Kazakhstan. In the first towns that appeared in Kazakhstan as fortifications of the Tsarist government, the army of the Ural and Siberian Cossack Russians was stabilized. This Army served as a point of defense of the border region of the Empire, as well as the only support for establishing Russian influence in Central Asia and Siberia. Due to the aggravation of the agrarian problem in the inner regions of Russia, drought and famine increased the emphasis on the resettlement of peasants to the region. In order to identify «surplus» land on the territory of Kazakhstan, «Resettlement departments» and special statistical parties (departments) will be created, and a program of study of land use and economy of the nomadic population of «Asian Russia» will be developed. The study cards collected data such as the number, age and gender of the local population, and knowledge of the Russian language with a distinctive feature. As a result of the settlement policy, along with the settlement of Russian peasants on Kazakh lands, the construction of forest dachas and farms, etc., which were owned by the state treasury, was taken over. These measures led to the resettlement of Kazakhs to desert and semi-desert lands and damaged the traditional system of animal husbandry.